Stop ‘playing politics’ Go back to southeast, Thompson urges ‘fly-ins’
FEDERAL MP Phillip Thompson has told a Labor senator visiting Townsville to go back to the southeast corner.
Cairns-based Senator Nita Green and Senator Murray Watt were in Townsville to put pressure on the Federal Government to outline what projects it would fast-track to help the region recover from the pandemic.
But the visit did not go down very well with the LNP Herbert member.
“We’ve got senators from the Gold Coast flying in with no idea … demanding the timelines on things they could easily pick up the phone and find out,” Mr Thompson said.
“They’re playing politics and they should piss off back to the southeast corner.”
Ms Green called on the Federal Government to pave the way out of coronavirus in Townsville with future-building projects.
She said there was a clear need for long-term projects in the region.
“It is more important than ever that we do have that conversation about what are the long-term, infrastructure projects here on the ground,” Ms Green said.
“I would like to know what the projects are that the Federal Government are going to consider fast-tracking.
“We don’t have that information yet, but we want to say what those projects are and how they’re going to be able to boost jobs.”
Ms Green and Mr Watt were in Townsville searching for an update on the Coalition’s promise of the $195 million Haughton Pipeline stage two.
“What people in Townsville want to see is some action – and they want to see politicians deliver on their election promises,” Mr Watt said.
“There is nothing more important in politics than honouring promises. If you get elected on a platform, you’ve got a responsibility to deliver.”
Mr Thompson reaffirmed his previous comments that the Haughton Pipeline stage two funding agreement was almost ready to go with a few final approvals pending.
The project has been caught up in a debate between state and federal politicians after the Queensland Government asked for the project not to be included in its GST allocation.
Mr Thompson said a GST exemption had never been sought for a Townsville project in the past.
As for long-term infrastructure projects to help the region recover from coronavirus, the federal MP rattled off projects that were completed recently, under way or slated to start soon.
This included the Cowboys High Performance Centre, Driveit, Reef HQ, a chinook facility at Lavarack Barracks, a drug rehab centre, black spot funding and more.